Sunday morning the sun came up over San Bernadino and there was a buzz in the air. Though I was in Los Angeles and not in Chino I was awoken by a feeling of pure excitement and anticipation that gave me an early start. So, by the time 10:00 am rolled around I was ready to go and on my way to the Planes of Fame airshow at the Chino Airport. This is mainly about the great photo opportunities that I was given while there for 5 hours. So I will leave it to the pictures and short captions after the jump to speak the truth.
Bell P-59 Airacomet: First jet-powered aircraft produced by the U.S.
Grumman F3F-2: Last biplane fighter used by the Navy.
Chance Vought F4U Corsair: Used in many Hollywood movies, likely to have seen combat in the Pacific in 1943.
Nose art: generally told what squadron the plane was apart of.
Piper L4F
Fahlin propellers: Look how beautiful the grain is and the brass edging.
More nose art: just another example of the intricacy put into one of these.
Margaret Stivers and Pilot Hartley Folstad of Silver Wings Wingwalkers: her area to walk on was half the size of that of a tightrope walker.
So Cal Triumph: refurbished and repainted to new specs.
Rob Harrison: The Tumbling Bear flying his Zlin 50.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning: only aircraft that went into production before the war that was still in production after the war.
Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat: Much of the original order for the F7F was cancelled after V-J Day, so first combat was in Korea where it was used as a night fighter.
"Don't Shoot! I'm Short"
Controls of an Army regulation Jeep.
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk: became famour flying with the "Flying Tigers"
Fairey Firefly: A British WWII era carrier-based fighter.
North American P-51 D Mustang
Republic P-47G Thunderbolt: designed around it's Pratt & Whitney R-2800, 18-cylinder turbo-charged radial engine which produced 2000 HP.
Grumman F6F Hellcat: the F6F had a kill ratio of about 20 to 1, shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other American aircraft in WWII.
Fairey Firefly: powered by a Rolls-Royce Griffon V-12 engine.
North American B-25 Mitchell
North American B-25 Mitchell: made famous by Doolittle's Tokyo raid four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The Horsemen in their F8F Bearcats
The Horsemen: normally in P-51 Mustangs are flying Grumman Bearcats for the celebration.
The Wingwalkers Stearman bi-plane
Blood-type and coordinates just in case anything happens. Thankful nothing didn't.
P.S. - Click on the pictures to enlarge.
1 comments:
Was the tiger nose art on a plane that took part with the Flying Tigers?
Such an awesome group, there are people in China who still admire the Flying Tigers, and live and die by Vinegar Joe's name.
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